Friday, 27 January 2017

First Ramble for a new year

Welcome to the new year’s very first Ramble! (The political year must really have started up down under.)

I had plenty of things I wanted to talk about over the break, and found lots of stuff to show you, but with the help of the drinks cabinet I managed to restrain myself until now. Much of what I had to talk was oddly enough about one man and his activities, and reactions to him and them (can you guess who it is?) whose reign does and will continue to offer multiple opportunities to learn – on all fronts!

“But Uber et al are not taxi 2.0. The real story is about ridesharing and its ability to increase vehicle occupancy rates and reduce congestion… If there was a way that the government could costlessly beat [the threat of traffic congestion and ever-larger traffic corridors], it would be a good (and popular) thing for a government to do, right?” Wrong, apparently.Who to blame for appalling road congestion? Start with National’s feeble attitude to ridesharing – David Seymour, THE SPINOFF

“People everywhere are biting their nails this election season, wondering how the damage could be limited. But let’s take a step back and ask whether it has to be this way. What if the power of government were so limited that it didn’t matter who occupied the White House? Wouldn't that be a vast improvement?”It Shouldn't Matter Who the President Is – Jeffrey Tucker, FEE

“There is just one big problem with Trump’s plan to make America great again: Big government, which is what brings countries down rather than lift them up. The big spending, the constant wars, the socialism, the regulation, the interventionism, the taxation, and the inflation ultimately cause a country to implode… “Trump and his fellow conservatives have it all wrong. As America’s Founding Fathers understood so well, a great nation is one that that has a very small and weak government with very limited powers.”Trump Will Not Make America Great Again - Jacob Hornberger, FFF

“There are three forms of journalism today: outright lying, biased advocacy / propaganda, and unbiased reporting… In reality, people hear the advocates. And they are the jurors. And, as long as both sides of an issue have competent advocates, with no side being shut down, the truth, and therefore justice, will normally prevail. The people are smart jurors.”A New Paradigm for Journalism – Vinay Kolhatkar, FACEBOOK

“We will never know how many Andras Grofs were lost to the West because, for foreign nationals, the right to earn a living and stay indefinitely, let alone vote and hold public office, has always been tightly controlled by the State. Such policies have been justified on the basis that the glue that holds a nation-state together is the commonality of history, language, tradition, culture, and religion… “The question before us is whether a nation-state that secures individual rights for its citizens can disregard the unity offered by cultural traditions, language, race, and religion.”Must a Moral Nation Have Limitless Immigration? – Vinay Kolhatkar, SAVVY STREET

"Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right."William E. Gladstone

“Snow in the Sahara Desert? The climate is always changing. Another reason why we need cheap, reliable, and abundant energy to help us flourish in the face of this change.”A metre of snow falls in the Sahara desert – TELEGRAPH

“Quick run-down on those "8 richest people" that Oxfam's condemning in this year's fund-raising drive. The common thread is they made stuff cheaper and better, effectively donating trillions to random strangers.”Their wealth is the prize money that drives innovation ... – Peter St Onge, FACEBOOK

“Social justice is the anti-concept that employs the concept of ‘justice’ in order to gain moral credibility—and then obliterates that concept in people’s minds and replaces it with the idea that the forcible redistribution of wealth is moral.”“Social Justice” is an Assault on Justice – Craig Biddle, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

“For most of recent history, the choice facing electorates has been binary: you could support the “Left” or the “Right” tribe, Conservatives or Labour, Democrats or Republicans. You could vote for a third party, of course, but only as a protest. This system worked well on one level: it allowed moments of profound change, as in 1979 or 1997, and ensured the peaceful transfer of power. “But it was a crude way of translating voters’ preferences into action, especially in a heterogenous society that cannot any longer be divided into distinct economic classes …; when the central issues become questions of identity, immigration or self-government, superimposed on conflicting, nuanced views about taxation and spending, the tensions can no longer be contained.”Voters used to Netflix have no time for Left and Right. We are entering the age of pick-and-mix politics – Allister Heath, TELEGRAPH

“The scene comes as the landlord, Schneider (Todd Grinnell), enters the apartment with a Che Guevara shirt on. It elicits response of disgust from the various family members; Penelope (Justina Machado), the mother yells at Schneider, 'Do you have any idea what this come mierda (commonly interpreted as dumb-ass) did?' 'Grew an awesome beard and modeled for t-shirts?' the man cluelessly says. The family explained that Guevara was not Cuban, but was Castro’s right-hand man. The daughter, Elena (Isabella Gonzalez), further explains why Cuban-Americans hated him so much. 'He burned books, he personally banned music, he personally oversaw executions, he’s a mass murderer,' she exclaims..."Netflix Show Calls Out People Who Wear Che Guevara Shirts – LIBERTARIAN REPUBLIC

Aaron Haspel: “If you're going to read only one thing about superintelligence -- and unless you're a professional, I strongly recommend no more than that -- then this should be that thing.”Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People – IDLE WORDS

“The Myth: We tried free banking and the result was constant bank runs and panics. The Federal Reserve was created to make the system stable and it succeeded.”The Reality: America’s recurrent panics were the product of financial control, and there is no evidence the Federal Reserve has made things better.”Banking Panics and the Creation of the Federal Reserve – Don Watkins, VOICES FOR REASON

1 comment:

Its good to see David Seymour making some effort, now that old slackjaw the "can kicker" is gone. There was some hold that slack jaw had over Epsom, and English has releasaed him. Television setsThere is no need to throw them out the window, They are useful as a monitor and you can do the kids homework with them fromn thier laptops in the evening. Also I turn the TV on as part of security when I leave the house. If the Wife wants to watch a TV program just say no. Women don't vote here . This is Sharia, man only rules.

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